• Lesson 13 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 7:24-29.

Jesus’ sermon demands action. He who hears and acts on what he has heard is wise, but he who hears and fails to act is foolish. A person may listen to the words of Jesus and even be impressed, but unless he chooses the narrow road and takes appropriate action, he is doomed.

The Lord applied this parable to everyone; no one is exempt. We are all building a house, and the house is our life. The house we build, or the life we prepare, brings consequences. We must live in the house we build.

We build our lives intellectually. A diligent lifelong learner will take advantage of educational opportunities offering tools for continuous learning. This preparation offers unique prospects for exploring new experiences and creating innovative ways to address the needs of others. Yet the one who is intellectually lazy will be foolish.

We also build our lives physically. When we ignore warnings early in life about the benefits of exercise, healthy diet and abstinence from harmful practices like tobacco, drugs and alcohol, we will suffer the consequences later. Socially, how we relate to our family, friends and associates leads to a life rich with meaningful relationships or one of loneliness and isolation. Our practices, morals, values, habits and experiences construct a house—or life—that becomes the one in which we must live. Therefore, Jesus warned us to build a life built on a solid foundation.

The house built on a solid foundation is not one constructed on good works, religious practices or socially accepted morals. The life that withstands storms is one built on the undeserved matchless grace of a righteous God, who has made himself available to us through the transforming work of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

To learn more about GC2 Press and the Connect360 Bible study series, or to order materials, click here.

• Lesson 12 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 7:15-23.

In verses 21–23, Jesus’ words should create a pause for all of us. He stated, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Who was Jesus addressing? Their theology appears to be correct; they call Jesus Lord. They gave themselves to worthwhile causes. “Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” They obviously were involved in Christian ministries as preachers, teachers and leaders of the church.

Yet, just like the Pharisees and scribes, they had an outward religion and not a change of heart. The spiritual leaders who rejected Jesus during his earthly ministry gave alms to the poor, prayed three times a day in the temple, fasted two days a week, gave themselves to the study of the Scripture and were disciplined in keeping the Law. On the day of judgment, Jesus will say to those who have not been born again, “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.”

Paul testified about the shallowness of this life in Philippians 3:2–14: “If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (3:4–7).

If anyone could have been saved by good works, Paul would have been that person. Neither his heritage, orthodoxy, personal righteousness nor religious zeal gave him new life. When he saw Christ, he realized all of his good deeds were no more than rubbish. Rather than bringing him to Christ, these dead works became a stumbling block to himself and to others.

Paul would not trade his new life with Christ for all of the achievements of his previous life. He said, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (3:8).” His new passion in life was to know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings. “I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (3:12).Paul didn’t want to miss out on what God had already prepared for him. Even in his suffering, he experienced the grace and mercy of God.

To learn more about GC2 Press and the Connect360 Bible study series, or to order materials, click here.

• Lesson 11 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 7:13-14.

Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24). As Jesus began to draw the Sermon to a conclusion, he repeated this argument with the illustrations of the two gates, two trees and two foundations. These “either/or” statements remind us there are only two choices: follow Christ and find life, or fail to follow Christ and experience destruction.

The narrow gate leading to the small path is not the most obvious choice. This is the path of those who ask, seek and knock. It is followed by individuals who acknowledge life’s most urgent questions—those who will dare contemplate origins, destinations and purpose of life.

An individual doesn’t just find himself or herself on the narrow road, Jesus said it requires a choice and an action, “Enter through the narrow gate.” The word translated enter is an aorist imperative verb in the Greek text, indicating a point in time and a command.

The narrow path is not the easier of the two, requiring a righteousness even greater than that of the law-abiding Pharisees. The ones traveling this road are called to resist anger and lust. They are those who love their enemies as well as their friends. They recognize they must deal with their own sins before attempting to help others with their sins. They are the ones who seek to treat others as they wish to be treated.

Some have said the safest place to be is in the will of God. That is not what Jesus said. He reminds us that the narrow path is costly. Jesus brings comfort to the grieving and strength to the persecuted.

The security and popularity of Christianity in the West has lured many into a false assurance with expectations of earthly rewards for living moral lives including occasional acts of charity. The cross, a symbol of our faith, has become decorative jewelry and the label Christian might easily be exploited for marketing purposes.

Yet, in many communities around the world, even a name that indicates a Christian heritage may result in children being forbidden from schools; or marking them as targets for kidnapping. Some of our trusted Nigerian friends indicate as many as 25,000 children have been kidnapped in 2022 in northern Nigeria by radical Islamist terrorists. In the Nineveh Plains in Iraq, houses marked with Christian symbols became targets for Isis as they expelled all Christians and other religious minorities from their homes and threatened them with death.

Only God knows how many Christians have recently been martyred or currently are in prison for their faith.

The narrow path is not the safest; nor is it the most popular. Jesus said only a few find it.

To learn more about GC2 Press and the Connect360 Bible study series, or to order materials, click here.

• Lesson 10 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 7:7-11.

Jesus’ parable of the friend asking for bread at midnight often is interpreted as a call to persistent prayer. In Luke 11:8, the sleeping friend agrees to give him bread, not because he is his friend, but because of his persistence, bothering him and awakening his family. He gets up and gives him whatever he wants just to get rid of him.

Is Jesus saying if we bother God with our continuous prayers, he reluctantly will answer? Of course not. This is a parable of contrast, rather than a parable of comparison. God is not like a grumpy friend who gets up and gives bread because he is annoyed or bothered. God is like a father who gives good gifts to his child.

God is eager to respond to our prayers. Jesus encouraged us to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking. The three imperatives: ask, seek and knock, are in the present tense indicating continuous action. Keep on asking and you will keep on receiving; keep seeking and you will continue to find; keep knocking and the door will continually be opened.

The Bible records stories from each generation where God’s people called out to him and he answered.

When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, they begged God for freedom (Exodus 1–4), and God raised up Moses and delivered them. During the time when Eli was a judge in Israel, Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, was barren. She cried to God and asked for a child and God gave her a son. She named him Samuel saying, “Because I have asked him of the Lord” (1 Samuel 1:20).

When God told Gideon to lead his people against the powerful Midianites, Gideon asked for assurance, and God gave him a sign (Judges 6). Solomon was made king over Israel, and he asked God for wisdom and God said, “Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you” (1 Kings 3:12).

David called on God for forgiveness in Psalm 51. Elisha prayed for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit when Elijah was taken up into heaven (2 Kings 2:9). Peter was in prison, and the church prayed for him to be released, and God set him free (Acts 12). God wants us to ask. He has plans for us greater than we can imagine. Isaiah 55:6 says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.”

To learn more about GC2 Press and the Connect360 Bible study series, or to order materials, click here.

• Lesson 9 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 7:1–6, 12.

Jesus warned his disciples against judging others. This was not a statement against confronting corruption and injustice. Jesus clearly addressed the hypocrisy of the religious leaders in Matthew 23, calling out the eight “woes.”

There are many biblical examples where judgment is pronounced against injustice. Nathan confronted King David for his sins of adultery and murder (2 Samuel 12). John the Baptist was put in prison and ultimately executed because he opposed Herod the tetrarch for all the wicked things he had done (Luke 3:18-20).

The Greek word used for “judge” is krinete. The English word critic is derived from this word. Jesus warned against unjust criticism of others by using the exaggerated imagery of a person totally oblivious to a log in his own eye while condemning a person with a speck in his eye. Speck refers to a splinter or small piece of dried wood, while a log is a plank on which a house is built. Jesus applied the obvious advice, “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (7:5).

Judging others is one of the most damaging sins that is too often tolerated and perhaps encouraged by the church. Even children are tempted to bully or ridicule others because of their differences. Prayer meetings quickly can turn into rumor mills and even into character assassinations. Concerns become suspicions, and then suspicions are repeated as facts.

Judgment is passed from person to person or by public forums through print, social media, even pulpits and classrooms. Whether judgment is proclaimed through graffiti or pseudo concerns that begin with, “I think you should know…,” Jesus condemns the hypocrisy of judging others while tolerating our own sins.

To learn more about GC2 Press and the Connect360 Bible study series, or to order materials, click here.

• Lesson 8 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 6:25-34.

Jesus reminded us that worry is a failure to trust God. In 6:32, he taught us that to be anxious about God’s provisions is to live like pagans (Gentiles).

The Psalmist David asked, “What is man that you take thought of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:4). When Jesus assured his listeners of God’s care for the birds, he then added, “Are you not worth much more than they?” (6:26). After His illustration of the lilies, he asked, “Will he not much more clothe you? You of little faith” (6:30)! Jesus challenged us to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,” and followed with the promise, “and all these things will be added to you” (6:33).

When Jesus taught us to pray, he gave us the privilege of addressing God as our Father (6:9). In Matthew 25, we learn of God’s immutable purposes of his cross, death, resurrection, ascension, return and judgment. In the great blessing of Ephesians 3:20–21, we read, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

We can be assured of God’s love for us; “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation of our sins” (1 John 4:10).

In Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?” Why should we allow worry to rob us of life, miss out on kingdom opportunities and shatter meaningful relationships when God promises to provide what we need?

Jesus taught us that we are to seek his kingdom and jis righteousness as our No. 1 priority in life. He promised in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (5:6).

To learn more about GC2 Press and the Connect360 Bible study series, or to order materials, click here.

Connect360: God or Wealth?

• Lesson 7 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 6:19-24.

In Matthew 6:19-20, Jesus used a form of the same word as both a verb “store” and noun “treasures.” Do not treasure for yourselves treasures on earth. Both verbs are in the present tense, indicating continuous action and are imperative commands. First it is stated negatively, “Do not store treasures on earth.” Then it is used positively, “But store for yourselves treasures in heaven.”

What was Jesus saying when he commanded us not to store treasures on earth? Are material things unimportant? Should we not buy houses, land, clothes or other life necessities? At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke of building a house on a solid foundation. In Matthew 25, Jesus praised those who share food and clothing to those who are in need. When we feed the hungry, we are feeding Christ.

God created us as finite creatures living in a physical world that requires food, clothing and shelter. God expects us to provide for our families. The Apostle Paul wrote work is ordained by God and a parent who fails to provide for his own family is worse than an unbeliever (1 Timothy 5:8). Yet, in the very next chapter he instructed Timothy: “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:9–11).

Jesus’ emphasis is not on having possessions but on treasuring them. God did not give us this command to restrict us or to use this as some kind of test of allegiance. As God of all eternity, God recognizes the impermanence of physical possessions and the destruction that comes to those who spend their lives focusing on acquiring them. A sign of wealth for first century folks was clothing. Jesus addressed the obvious. How foolish it is to put your trust in something even a moth can destroy or a thief can steal.

To learn more about GC2 Press and the Connect360 Bible study series, or to order materials, click here. 

• Lesson 6 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 6:9-15.

The invocation is a summoning of God to receive our prayer as well as an invitation from him for us to join him. We begin with the privilege of calling God our Father. What an incredible privilege.

First, we find the plural pronoun—“our.” Of course, Jesus has a special relationship with the Father since he is the only One called monogena, or only begotten Son in John 3:16. Yet, he invites us to join with the cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12:1, including those throughout the past generations as well as all who call on him from around the world.

We all are part of the body of Christ. I do not believe in lone ranger Christians. A foot by itself is worthless. Just as a body consists of many members, this is also true of the body of Christ. All Christian believers are one in him. When we pray, we join with others from every nation, tribe and ethnicity as brothers and sisters.

Calling God “our Father” may be a privilege we take for granted since this has been our practice for a lifetime. Yet it sounded like heresy for those who first heard Jesus. “For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18).

In the Old Testament God was referred to as “Father” only 13 times, yet Jesus referred to God as “Father” more than 150 times. The only time Jesus prayed to God without calling him “Father” was on the cross, when Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

Jesus said to call out, “Our Father.” The Aramaic word for father is abba. Just as a young child first cries out abba—“dada” or “daddy”—Jesus has given us the privilege of calling out to God as one who would call out to his own father.

To learn more about GC2 Press and the Connect360 Bible study series, or to order materials, click here.

• Lesson 5 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18.

Even though it is important to know how to pray for those gathered on any occasion, the temptation always is there to attempt to impress those who are listening. Jesus considered that kind of piety phony. He rebuked the religious leaders who showed up in the synagogues and street corners praying to be seen by men. They have no heavenly reward, he warned.

Jesus also exposed the hypocrisy of meaningless repetitions in prayers. When the Jews repeated the Shema every morning and evening, it easily might have become trivial, ritualistic and meaningless. In 1 Kings 18, the prophets of Baal called out to their god from morning until evening, dancing around the altar, even cutting themselves with knives. Yet their god was not real and was unable to answer them. Elijah responded with a simple two sentence prayer to Yahweh, and God answered with fire from heaven.

Jesus was not rebuking persistent prayer; He spent all night in prayer on occasions. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed for hours and admonished the disciples for being unable to stay awake and pray. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18).

Was Jesus saying we should avoid praying in public? Did he advise us against using written prayers of others? Obviously not, because right after these admonitions, he prayed publicly giving us an example of a prayer we continue to use as a model prayer.

Jesus and his followers went to the temple to pray. Quoting from Isaiah 56:7, Jesus was angry at the money changers in the temple and said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a robbers’ den’” (Matthew 21:13). Even after the resurrection the disciples continued to pray in the temple. “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer” (Acts 3:1).

To learn more about GC2 Press and the Connect360 Bible study series, or to order materials, click here.

• Lesson 4 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 5:33-48.

Many of Jesus’ hearers were poor. If they gave an adversary their shirt, it literally would have been the shirt off their back. They also were subject to the governing Romans ,who were their oppressors. By law, the Romans could force a Jew to carry their enemies’ load up to a mile. Why did Jesus ask a poor person to give his last shirt away, or go two miles carrying his oppressors’ bags, or even to give to those who ask him for help? This action would have been degrading and humiliating.

If a person’s goal is the accumulation of wealth, this lifestyle creates suspicions and greed causing an impulse to hold onto everything a person owns. Generosity is the opposite of greed. A symbol of our society might be a closed hand. How do we grasp all we can and hold on to it, keeping our wealth away from others who seek to seize it?

Jesus’ example is the opposite. In Philippians 2:5–11, the picture of Christ is one who gave himself away rather than grasping what was rightfully his. Instead of the symbol of grasping of the closed hand, a Christ follower must be one with an open hand, giving himself away because of a love for others.

The ultimate challenge for a peacemaker is to love his enemies. Just as our heavenly Father sends rain and causes the sun to rise on the just and the unjust, we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Two of the countries where the church is growing most quickly are Iran and China, two nations totally opposed to religious freedom. The most powerful evangelistic tool for the church in these nations is love.

To learn more about GC2 Press and the Connect360 Bible study series, or to order materials, click here.

• Lesson 3 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 5:17-32.

The great theologian Barney Fife, a character played by Don Knotts on The Andy Griffith Show back in the 1960s, made famous the expression, “Nip it in the bud.” The statement means taking care of a problem in its early stages before it gets too big to manage.

The Law of Moses said, “Don’t murder.” Jesus told his followers, “Don’t even be angry with your brother.” The ancients were told, “Don’t commit adultery.” Jesus said, “Don’t even lust.”

One of the most important questions in life is, “How can we enter the kingdom of heaven?” The answer to this question has implications for our lives now and for all eternity. Jesus addressed this issue in Matthew 5:20, that is one of the key verses in the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus said only those who are more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees will enter the kingdom of heaven. How can this be true? No one was more righteous than these religious leaders, scrupulous in their attempt to keep the Law. They actually went beyond what the Law required. In the Old Testament, we hear about one day of fasting, yet the Pharisees fasted two days a week. They tithed every leaf in their garden. How can anyone be more righteous than they were?

Jesus spoke of a kingdom grace that transforms the heart. When Moses repeated the commandments in Deuteronomy 5, the people said, “We hear what you are saying, and we will do it.” God responded, “Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always” (Deuteronomy 5:29).

Jesus came to give them a new heart.

To learn more about GC2 Press and the Connect360 Bible study series, or to order materials, click here.

• Lesson 2 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 5:13-16.

Too often, there is little distinction between the church and the world. Greed, prejudice, anger and immorality are also found in the church. Congregations are tempted to turn to marketing schemes and downplaying biblical teachings and values in order to make the unchurched feel comfortable in our midst. The church cannot reach the world by becoming assimilated into the world.

If we are not to be assimilated, does this mean the church should be isolated from the world? Christian alternatives for education, recreation and social ministries may be essential to the development of strong families and for the preparation of well-grounded disciples for Christ. Yet, does this also run the risk of isolating us from the world when we are supposed to be light? Jesus demonstrates the balance of withdrawing from the world to be energized by the Holy Spirit, in order to reengage the world bringing light to places of darkness.

Christ is not calling the church to assimilation or isolation. He is calling us for transformation. If we were saved just to be protected from the evil one, Jesus would have taken us to heaven the moment we were saved. Jesus prayed, “I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15).

To learn more about GC2 Press and the Connect360 Bible study series, or to order materials, click here.